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Steve Kerr, Steph Curry, Barack Obama

Here’s my 2012 column in Taki’s Magazine that offered a useful neologism for thinking about where the President is coming from: he is by upbringing a “Muslimist.” I derived the word from the term “Arabist” that has traditionally been used to describe the High Protestant caste of American diplomats and educators who long were the Arab world’s main voices in America.

For example, Golden State Warrior’s coach Steve Kerr is the descendant of several generations of Arabists. When I was at UCLA in the early 1980s, Steve father, Malcolm Kerr, had a nice job as vice-chancellor. But then Malcolm quit to head the American University of Beirut, where his parents had taught. It took a brave man to leave idyllic Westwood for Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War.

A simple explanation of Obama’s strengths and weaknesses has finally occurred to me.

The first two-dozen years of Obama’s life saw him on a path for a professional niche that nobody has quite explicated before. Until he upped stakes and moved to Chicago in 1985 to participate in the Council Wars racial struggle with the implausible goal of becoming mayor of Chicago, Obama was gliding down an unusual path: to become an international interlocutor, a graceful go-between connecting America and the Muslim world. …

In American history, Foreign Service specialists are often the mild-mannered descendants of adventuresome old Protestants who became bored with their rocky Northeastern farms, such as the Yankee sea captains, merchants, and Protestant missionaries who dominated 19th-century America’s contacts with less developed cultures abroad such as the Kingdom of Hawaii.

In 1971, the ten-year-old Barack Obama enrolled in Punahou School, Hawaii’s flagship of Yankee culture. Punahou had been founded 130 years before by the Vermont missionary Hiram Bingham I. Upon Bingham, James Michener had modeled his villain, the Rev. Abner Hale, in his 1959 bestseller Hawaii.

As Obama notes in his stump speeches, the Dunhams were from Kansas … but from a particularly Yankee-leaning part of the Jayhawk State. For instance, his grandfather’s brother Ralph, a Berkeley Ph.D., traced his name back to that ultimate Unitarian, Ralph Waldo Emerson. (The president’s grandmother also had a sibling who earned a doctorate.)

In American history, the two most controversial castes of missionary-derived mandarins were the Old China Hands and the Arabists.

The former were typically sons of Protestant missionaries born or raised in China, such as Owen Lattimore, John Paton Davies, Jr., and John S. Service. The left-leaning diplomatic, academic, and journalistic China Hands clashed with the right-leaning China Lobby in the 1940s and 1950s over whether American should back Mao Tse-tung or Chiang Kai-shek. Was Chiang a loser or was Mao a lunatic? (Unfortunately, it turned out that both could be true simultaneously.)

Similarly, as outlined in Robert D. Kaplan’s 1995 book The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite, Protestant missionaries from the Atlantic Seaboard voyaged to the Arab world in the 19th century. They didn’t have much luck converting the locals to Protestantism. … But these intermarried families founded influential schools such as the American University of Beirut.

The Arabists played an influential role in American foreign policy until largely being squeezed out by Zionists angered with Arabists’ sympathy for the Palestinians.

Much of the Muslim world, however, is not Arab—for example, Indonesia, Pakistan, and large parts of black Africa. And that opened up a potential career path not as an Arabist per se, but as a “Muslimist.” The Muslimist route became especially promising in 1973 with the Muslim-dominated OPEC’s emergence as an economic power. The oil cartel included not only Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Libya, and Iran, but also Indonesia and part-Muslim Nigeria.

And who was better suited by family, friends, and personality to become a professional Muslimist than Barack Obama? As Obama told his biographer David Maraniss, the “obvious path for me given my background” was to get a graduate degree in international relations and wind up “working in the State Department, in the Foreign Service, or working for an international foundation.…”

After all, how common is it for an American citizen to be the biological son of an East African government official and a Ford Foundation employee in Jakarta, and the stepson of an Indonesian who works in government relations for an American oil company because his brother-in-law was in charge of mineral rights for the Jakarta regime? …

Obama’s elders recognized that this career path made sense for him. Thus, at substantial expense, he attended Occidental, an underachieving but quite WASPy/international liberal-arts college, and then majored in international relations at Columbia.

Most of Obama’s male friends from age 18 through 24 were rich Pakistani Marxists, putting him on the fringes of the powerful Bhutto circle. (They all saw Obama as much less African-American than as “international.”)

But it’s also telling that his best American buddy, Phil Boerner, with whom he transferred from Occidental to Columbia in 1981, was the son of a peripatetic diplomat.

Likewise, Obama’s most serious New York girlfriend, Genevieve Cook, was the daughter of a top Australian diplomat/spy in Indonesia who later became Australia’s ambassador to America. Genevieve was also the stepdaughter of the chief counsel of the International Nickel Company, which had lucrative mining interests in Indonesia. ….

But Obama didn’t like the messages coming from Washington in the 1980s, enormously successful as Reagan’s foreign policy turned out to be. Reagan’s landslide reelection in 1984 was followed by Obama’s bizarre turn to insular Chicago politics in 1985.

To sum it up: As a Muslimist by background, Obama likes Muslims in general, but he doesn’t much like Arabs in particular.

This formulation helps explain Obama’s lack of interest in the plight of Christian Arabs.

Sadly, almost no one is particularly interested in the plight of Christian Arabs.

I don’t think it takes much analysis to see why Obama’s lack of interest in Christian Arabs is not much different from Dubya’s lack of real interest. Most humans have a “bully” instinct, an instinctive contempt for losers and failures. Christian Arabs are the losers of the Middle East – once dominant, then living for centuries at the mercy of their Muslim overlords. Even in the 19th century most European Christians never seem to have had much sympathy for them.

Part of the problem and tragedy for Christian Arabs is that their identification as "Arab" is a product of the 20th century only.

During Ottoman times and presumably before, Christians and Muslims were viewed as separate groups. The people who today we identify as Christian Arabs would have considered themselves to be Assyrians, Chaldeans, Copts, Maronites, Greek Orthodox, etc., but not Arabs. Arabs were Muslim.

However starting in the 1920s, Arab nationalism was invented by a few intellectuals and some Christians in these regions began identifying as Arab. After the rise of secular dictators in the 40s and 50s, these regimes had an interest in promoting a supposed shared ethnic identity among the people and suppressed separate identifications. Many Christians became enthusiastic participants in the new nationalistic Baathist regimes, the PLO and so on.

Now with the rise of Islamism the Christians of the region have discovered how the Muslims actually feel about them, and it is often not as fellow co-ethnics. As the old Muslim saying goes 'First the Saturday People, then the Sunday People," meaning once the Arab countries have been rid of Jews, which was accomplished after 1948, they can be rid of Christians. At this point they largely are. For example Jordan has gone from 30% Christian in 1950 to 5% today. ISIS may be removing the last traces of the 2000 year old Assyrian Christian community from its territory.

Lessons of history usually go unlearned, but many people in the West would benefit from understanding what happened to the Christians of the Middle East. They tried to ally with Muslims only to find out that the alliance was all take and no give.

Many of them aren't. I"m always amazed at how a lot of them even now can't identify what is a classic American type: the Unitariarianized- a middlebrow, secularized, internationalist in outlook progressive with the tastes and character largely derived from New England Unitarianism (note Steve's shout out to Emerson). It doesn't matter what denomination they come from, they will end their lives like this. This has been a pattern for two centuries. You can be born with boots and end up buried in birkenstocks.

The way this is written makes your point unclear to me. Sanders is a stereotypical New York left-wing Jew. He may not be observant one, but he is an instantly recognizable member of the tribe by his appearance, his mannerisms, his world view, etc. So, are you saying that Obama may be a non-observant Muslim, but he is otherwise one of their tribe? Or do you somehow think Sanders' Jewish background has left no imprint on him, and likewise Obama's Muslim influences have had no effect on him as well?

When Trump referred to the Orlando terrorist as “an Afghan” in his speech on Monday, journos jumped on Twitter to correct him: “He was born in America!”.

Now we hear the killer referred to Afghanistan as “my country” and claimed affiliation with the Islamic State. Had he called himself a woman, the PC left would insist he was a woman. But Trump calling him an Afghan is a mark of ignorance.

Excellent point. For today's "left," if you're born with male genitalia but identify as a woman - you're a woman. On the other hand, if you're born in America but identify with your Afghan ancestors, your an American. (At least, if you do anything bad).

"When Trump referred to the Orlando terrorist as “an Afghan” in his speech on Monday, journos jumped on Twitter to correct him: “He was born in America!”.

If Omar Mateen was a doctor who found a cure for cancer or alzheimer, the mainstream media journalists would be the first ones to label him an Afghan and emphasis his immigrant background & the fact that his parents were not born in The U.S. They would not be labeling him just an American.

When Trump referred to the Orlando terrorist as "an Afghan" in his speech on Monday, journos jumped on Twitter to correct him: "He was born in America!".

Now we hear the killer referred to Afghanistan as "my country" and claimed affiliation with the Islamic State. Had he called himself a woman, the PC left would insist he was a woman. But Trump calling him an Afghan is a mark of ignorance.

Excellent point. For today’s “left,” if you’re born with male genitalia but identify as a woman – you’re a woman. On the other hand, if you’re born in America but identify with your Afghan ancestors, your an American. (At least, if you do anything bad).

“To sum it up: As a Muslimist by background, Obama likes Muslims in general, but he doesn’t much like Arabs in particular.”

Obama doesn’t like Christians in general, since to him the religion represents one of the historical American institutions (e.g. majority white) that he is so hell bent on dismantling in the waning months before January 20, 2017.

The Obama administration, including Hillary Clinton, blamed the 9/11/2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. ambassador to Libya in Benghazi on a Coptic Christian’s YouTube video. Copts are Egyptian Christians though the Obama administration appears to consider them to be Arabs (viz. “Arab Spring”).

An analogy would be if in the 1930s, the U.K. ambassador in Germany was murdered by a group of Nazis and the U.K. prime minister blamed anti-Hitler literature, produced by a German Jew living in the U.K., for the murder. How would “history” view this Prime Minister?

The Obama administration, including Hillary Clinton, blamed the 9/11/2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. ambassador to Libya in Benghazi on a Coptic Christian's YouTube video. Copts are Egyptian Christians though the Obama administration appears to consider them to be Arabs (viz. "Arab Spring").

An analogy would be if in the 1930s, the U.K. ambassador in Germany was murdered by a group of Nazis and the U.K. prime minister blamed anti-Hitler literature, produced by a German Jew living in the U.K., for the murder. How would "history" view this Prime Minister?

Obama is no more or less a Muslim than Bernie Sanders is a Jew. Are Americans capable of wrapping their heads around that?

Many of them aren’t. I”m always amazed at how a lot of them even now can’t identify what is a classic American type: the Unitariarianized- a middlebrow, secularized, internationalist in outlook progressive with the tastes and character largely derived from New England Unitarianism (note Steve’s shout out to Emerson). It doesn’t matter what denomination they come from, they will end their lives like this. This has been a pattern for two centuries. You can be born with boots and end up buried in birkenstocks.

Sadly, almost no one is particularly interested in the plight of Christian Arabs.

I don't think it takes much analysis to see why Obama's lack of interest in Christian Arabs is not much different from Dubya's lack of real interest. Most humans have a "bully" instinct, an instinctive contempt for losers and failures. Christian Arabs are the losers of the Middle East - once dominant, then living for centuries at the mercy of their Muslim overlords. Even in the 19th century most European Christians never seem to have had much sympathy for them.

Part of the problem and tragedy for Christian Arabs is that their identification as “Arab” is a product of the 20th century only.

During Ottoman times and presumably before, Christians and Muslims were viewed as separate groups. The people who today we identify as Christian Arabs would have considered themselves to be Assyrians, Chaldeans, Copts, Maronites, Greek Orthodox, etc., but not Arabs. Arabs were Muslim.

However starting in the 1920s, Arab nationalism was invented by a few intellectuals and some Christians in these regions began identifying as Arab. After the rise of secular dictators in the 40s and 50s, these regimes had an interest in promoting a supposed shared ethnic identity among the people and suppressed separate identifications. Many Christians became enthusiastic participants in the new nationalistic Baathist regimes, the PLO and so on.

Now with the rise of Islamism the Christians of the region have discovered how the Muslims actually feel about them, and it is often not as fellow co-ethnics. As the old Muslim saying goes ‘First the Saturday People, then the Sunday People,” meaning once the Arab countries have been rid of Jews, which was accomplished after 1948, they can be rid of Christians. At this point they largely are. For example Jordan has gone from 30% Christian in 1950 to 5% today. ISIS may be removing the last traces of the 2000 year old Assyrian Christian community from its territory.

Lessons of history usually go unlearned, but many people in the West would benefit from understanding what happened to the Christians of the Middle East. They tried to ally with Muslims only to find out that the alliance was all take and no give.

This doesn't contradict the substance of what you wrote, but in the Detroit area where Chaldeans have settled in large numbers, the Chaldeans do maintain an identity different from that of Arabs. They claim to be descended from Iraq's original Babylonian/Sumerian people, while the Muslim Arabs are invaders who from the South. The local "Arab" organization is called the Arab Chaldean Council, not simply Arab council, because Chaldeans insist they are not Arabs (a point that offends some Arabs, who think the Chaldeans think they are better than Arabs and so want to emphasize their different identity).

You score a twofer, for not only limning the significance of his Moslem past in its broader context but by citing his genealogy you reinforce the HBD notion that some of the explanation for Obama’s behavior can be attributed to his genetic inheritance.

Brings to mind the way the cast of characters in the Illiad would announce that I, so-and-so, son of Cretops, son of Dionacles etc. challenge you to one on one battle. They understood the importance of bloodlines.

Something that has always puzzled me about Obama. He is lauded as the most brilliant President ever, perhaps the most brilliant man ever. Obama certainly believes it. But yet he lived in Indonesia during his youth (the period of life when it is easiest to learn a language) and he is unable to speak the Indonesian language.

Surely he had extensive exposure to the language. It makes no sense to me.

It would be interesting to see the results if Barack Obama were given the AFQT. My guess is that he is smart enough to enlist in any branch (were he of enlistable age) but probably could not qualify for, say, the Navy's Nuclear Power Program. While his cognitive map is probably a little unconventional, I seriously doubt he could be above 115 IQ overall, maybe as low as 100-105.

He is in other words very probably the least smart president in modern times. I suspect even the not very smart Gerald Ford could outscore him in some areas.

Has the average IQ in Washington gone up in recent times? I don't know, but it may well have, since to a greater and greater degree that's where the money is.

This could mean that BHO is relatively the stupidest president vis-a-vis those who surround him in history. Then again, maybe not. Worth thinking about, maybe?

"Something that has always puzzled me about Obama. He is lauded as the most brilliant President ever, perhaps the most brilliant man ever. Obama certainly believes it. But yet he lived in Indonesia during his youth (the period of life when it is easiest to learn a language) and he is unable to speak the Indonesian language.

Surely he had extensive exposure to the language. It makes no sense to me."

Jared Taylor spent his childhood in Japan and is fluent in Japanese. Barack Hussein Obama spent his childhood in Indonesia and is not fluent in Indonesian.

Does Jared Taylor have a higher IQ than America's first Black president?

It's amusing that during the 2008 campaign, Obama scolded Americans for not learning a second language:

“Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English, because they will learn English, you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish,” he said. “We should have every child speaking more than one language.”

For comic effect, he added, “It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is ‘Merci beaucoup.’”

He said a foreign language is a “powerful tool” to becoming more employable in the global economy and said children learn languages easier than adults.

“We should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age, because children will actually learn a foreign language easier when they’re 5, or 6, or 7 than when they’re 46, like me,” he said.

Obama cannot speak a second language, though he lived in Indonesia from ages six through ten.

BTW, isn't Obama our scoldingest president ever? I can't recall another president who so often found the American people not up to his expectations. Not even Jimmy Carter.

Mohammed, whose immediate successors were two of his fathers in law and his son in law. was a military leader and it could also be mentioned that he was the leader of a religion of Arab supremicists who were Arabists in the sense of ethnic imperialists until the Ottomans triumphed.

The tribute non Muslims paid for being left alone was a powerful motive to not convert those on conquered territories, and it was only after that protection racket ended that Christians started to call themselves “Arabs” .

Financial motive is underestimated in supposed religious conflict, and particularly overlooked as an organisational driving force:-

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/articles/2003/3/spring%20defense%20singer/singer20030301
A diverse group of capitalists, bourgeois merchants, and petty nobles, they saw war simply as a business, another highly specialized service to be sold…. almost all the battles in the first two decades of the war were fought completely by contract
units. [...] Wallenstein, who through the private military business became the wealthiest man in all of Europe. .. more than just the most renowned military entrepreneur. {…] In many ways, the seeds of modern military organization were thus sown, not by the demands of the battlefield so much as by Wallenstein’s response to the market’s demands for efficiency.

Something that has always puzzled me about Obama. He is lauded as the most brilliant President ever, perhaps the most brilliant man ever. Obama certainly believes it. But yet he lived in Indonesia during his youth (the period of life when it is easiest to learn a language) and he is unable to speak the Indonesian language.

Surely he had extensive exposure to the language. It makes no sense to me.

I had a friend in elementary school who came home from spending one year in France (engineering professor taught abroad for one year) speaking fluent French. No lessons, total immersion.

I spent two years in Panama when I was young and learned Spanish quite easily. That was around 40 years ago and I am still fluent. Although I did make an effort not to forget it when I returned to the U.S.

When Trump referred to the Orlando terrorist as "an Afghan" in his speech on Monday, journos jumped on Twitter to correct him: "He was born in America!".

Now we hear the killer referred to Afghanistan as "my country" and claimed affiliation with the Islamic State. Had he called himself a woman, the PC left would insist he was a woman. But Trump calling him an Afghan is a mark of ignorance.

“When Trump referred to the Orlando terrorist as “an Afghan” in his speech on Monday, journos jumped on Twitter to correct him: “He was born in America!”.

If Omar Mateen was a doctor who found a cure for cancer or alzheimer, the mainstream media journalists would be the first ones to label him an Afghan and emphasis his immigrant background & the fact that his parents were not born in The U.S. They would not be labeling him just an American.

I had a friend in elementary school who came home from spending one year in France (engineering professor taught abroad for one year) speaking fluent French. No lessons, total immersion.

I spent two years in Panama when I was young and learned Spanish quite easily. That was around 40 years ago and I am still fluent. Although I did make an effort not to forget it when I returned to the U.S.

Something that has always puzzled me about Obama. He is lauded as the most brilliant President ever, perhaps the most brilliant man ever. Obama certainly believes it. But yet he lived in Indonesia during his youth (the period of life when it is easiest to learn a language) and he is unable to speak the Indonesian language.

Surely he had extensive exposure to the language. It makes no sense to me.

It would be interesting to see the results if Barack Obama were given the AFQT. My guess is that he is smart enough to enlist in any branch (were he of enlistable age) but probably could not qualify for, say, the Navy’s Nuclear Power Program. While his cognitive map is probably a little unconventional, I seriously doubt he could be above 115 IQ overall, maybe as low as 100-105.

He is in other words very probably the least smart president in modern times. I suspect even the not very smart Gerald Ford could outscore him in some areas.

Has the average IQ in Washington gone up in recent times? I don’t know, but it may well have, since to a greater and greater degree that’s where the money is.

This could mean that BHO is relatively the stupidest president vis-a-vis those who surround him in history. Then again, maybe not. Worth thinking about, maybe?

I think you are likely correct in your analysis of Obama's intelligence. Above average, but not much.

Gerald Ford had the reputation of not being very smart, but I think this was more due to him being fairly inarticulate than to a lack of cognitive ability. I don't remember the source, but I remember reading that he was actually a very smart man, just not a gifted orator.

I think Sailer's giving Obama WAY too much credit. Sailer's trying to project his own intellectual consistency and rationality onto someone who simply has none. Obama is merely a reflexive university Leftist -- a quasi-Marxist who is a multimillionaire, a supposed champion of the common autoworker who hangs out with Hollywood celebrities, a Muslim sympathizer who is really an atheist. He hates the United States, yet craves its power and prestige. The man is a series of profound contradictions.

The only way to make sense of Obama is to view him through the prism of his otherness and his lifelong role as an outsider looking in, an outcast, a third wheel, part of nothing. This alone explains his contempt and his lack of accomplishment, coupled with a simultaneous willingness to adopt a variety of poses -- a black pose, an intellectual pose, a Muslim pose -- to appear superior, better, and above the plebeian "bitter clingers.”

That comment was four years ago…

My verdict of Obama is darker than that. His driving motivation, his emotional raison d’être, is to slight and dispossess whites. This is proven in his feverish facilitation of the current invasion. Hispanics, Muslims, Africans, whatever. Bring ‘em all in.

As for his own “faith,” I don’t see it. He may have received some romantic “imprinting” of Islamic culture in his youth, but he’s smart enough to know that as an anonymous “Barack” in a Sharia country he’d be thrown off a roof within an hour.

It would be interesting to see the results if Barack Obama were given the AFQT. My guess is that he is smart enough to enlist in any branch (were he of enlistable age) but probably could not qualify for, say, the Navy's Nuclear Power Program. While his cognitive map is probably a little unconventional, I seriously doubt he could be above 115 IQ overall, maybe as low as 100-105.

He is in other words very probably the least smart president in modern times. I suspect even the not very smart Gerald Ford could outscore him in some areas.

Has the average IQ in Washington gone up in recent times? I don't know, but it may well have, since to a greater and greater degree that's where the money is.

This could mean that BHO is relatively the stupidest president vis-a-vis those who surround him in history. Then again, maybe not. Worth thinking about, maybe?

I think you are likely correct in your analysis of Obama’s intelligence. Above average, but not much.

Gerald Ford had the reputation of not being very smart, but I think this was more due to him being fairly inarticulate than to a lack of cognitive ability. I don’t remember the source, but I remember reading that he was actually a very smart man, just not a gifted orator.

Something that has always puzzled me about Obama. He is lauded as the most brilliant President ever, perhaps the most brilliant man ever. Obama certainly believes it. But yet he lived in Indonesia during his youth (the period of life when it is easiest to learn a language) and he is unable to speak the Indonesian language.

Surely he had extensive exposure to the language. It makes no sense to me.

“Something that has always puzzled me about Obama. He is lauded as the most brilliant President ever, perhaps the most brilliant man ever. Obama certainly believes it. But yet he lived in Indonesia during his youth (the period of life when it is easiest to learn a language) and he is unable to speak the Indonesian language.

Surely he had extensive exposure to the language. It makes no sense to me.”

Jared Taylor spent his childhood in Japan and is fluent in Japanese. Barack Hussein Obama spent his childhood in Indonesia and is not fluent in Indonesian.

Does Jared Taylor have a higher IQ than America’s first Black president?

Part of the problem and tragedy for Christian Arabs is that their identification as "Arab" is a product of the 20th century only.

During Ottoman times and presumably before, Christians and Muslims were viewed as separate groups. The people who today we identify as Christian Arabs would have considered themselves to be Assyrians, Chaldeans, Copts, Maronites, Greek Orthodox, etc., but not Arabs. Arabs were Muslim.

However starting in the 1920s, Arab nationalism was invented by a few intellectuals and some Christians in these regions began identifying as Arab. After the rise of secular dictators in the 40s and 50s, these regimes had an interest in promoting a supposed shared ethnic identity among the people and suppressed separate identifications. Many Christians became enthusiastic participants in the new nationalistic Baathist regimes, the PLO and so on.

Now with the rise of Islamism the Christians of the region have discovered how the Muslims actually feel about them, and it is often not as fellow co-ethnics. As the old Muslim saying goes 'First the Saturday People, then the Sunday People," meaning once the Arab countries have been rid of Jews, which was accomplished after 1948, they can be rid of Christians. At this point they largely are. For example Jordan has gone from 30% Christian in 1950 to 5% today. ISIS may be removing the last traces of the 2000 year old Assyrian Christian community from its territory.

Lessons of history usually go unlearned, but many people in the West would benefit from understanding what happened to the Christians of the Middle East. They tried to ally with Muslims only to find out that the alliance was all take and no give.

This doesn’t contradict the substance of what you wrote, but in the Detroit area where Chaldeans have settled in large numbers, the Chaldeans do maintain an identity different from that of Arabs. They claim to be descended from Iraq’s original Babylonian/Sumerian people, while the Muslim Arabs are invaders who from the South. The local “Arab” organization is called the Arab Chaldean Council, not simply Arab council, because Chaldeans insist they are not Arabs (a point that offends some Arabs, who think the Chaldeans think they are better than Arabs and so want to emphasize their different identity).

He’s a white-hating racist, is what he is. He’s pro-Muslim to the degree that they’re overwhelmingly not white and are anti-West. When will you people learn, that you can judge what the position of the leftist/nonwhite coalition will be by finding out which option will cause the most white people pain, the most white people to be robbed, raped, and murdered and the option that is most destructive to white societies. His “pro” is driven by his “anti.”

I think Sailer’s giving Obama WAY too much credit. Sailer’s trying to project his own intellectual consistency and rationality onto someone who simply has none. Obama is merely a reflexive university Leftist — a quasi-Marxist who is a multimillionaire, a supposed champion of the common autoworker who hangs out with Hollywood celebrities, a Muslim sympathizer who is really an atheist. He hates the United States, yet craves its power and prestige. The man is a series of profound contradictions.

The only way to make sense of Obama is to view him through the prism of his otherness and his lifelong role as an outsider looking in, an outcast, a third wheel, part of nothing. This alone explains his contempt and his lack of accomplishment, coupled with a simultaneous willingness to adopt a variety of poses — a black pose, an intellectual pose, a Muslim pose — to appear superior, better, and above the plebeian “bitter clingers.”

That comment was four years ago…

My verdict of Obama is darker than that. His driving motivation, his emotional raison d’être, is to slight and dispossess whites. This is proven in his feverish facilitation of the current invasion. Hispanics, Muslims, Africans, whatever. Bring ‘em all in.

As for his own “faith,” I don’t see it. He may have received some romantic “imprinting” of Islamic culture in his youth, but he’s smart enough to know that as an anonymous “Barack” in a Sharia country he’d be thrown off a roof within an hour.

Obama is no more or less a Muslim than Bernie Sanders is a Jew. Are Americans capable of wrapping their heads around that?

The way this is written makes your point unclear to me. Sanders is a stereotypical New York left-wing Jew. He may not be observant one, but he is an instantly recognizable member of the tribe by his appearance, his mannerisms, his world view, etc. So, are you saying that Obama may be a non-observant Muslim, but he is otherwise one of their tribe? Or do you somehow think Sanders’ Jewish background has left no imprint on him, and likewise Obama’s Muslim influences have had no effect on him as well?

I think you are likely correct in your analysis of Obama's intelligence. Above average, but not much.

Gerald Ford had the reputation of not being very smart, but I think this was more due to him being fairly inarticulate than to a lack of cognitive ability. I don't remember the source, but I remember reading that he was actually a very smart man, just not a gifted orator.

People confuse (conflate?) being a good talker with being smart overall. And being a good talker is what sells politicians.

Something that has always puzzled me about Obama. He is lauded as the most brilliant President ever, perhaps the most brilliant man ever. Obama certainly believes it. But yet he lived in Indonesia during his youth (the period of life when it is easiest to learn a language) and he is unable to speak the Indonesian language.

Surely he had extensive exposure to the language. It makes no sense to me.

It’s amusing that during the 2008 campaign, Obama scolded Americans for not learning a second language:

“Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English, because they will learn English, you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish,” he said. “We should have every child speaking more than one language.”

For comic effect, he added, “It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is ‘Merci beaucoup.’”

He said a foreign language is a “powerful tool” to becoming more employable in the global economy and said children learn languages easier than adults.

“We should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age, because children will actually learn a foreign language easier when they’re 5, or 6, or 7 than when they’re 46, like me,” he said.

Obama cannot speak a second language, though he lived in Indonesia from ages six through ten.

BTW, isn’t Obama our scoldingest president ever? I can’t recall another president who so often found the American people not up to his expectations. Not even Jimmy Carter.

This doesn't contradict the substance of what you wrote, but in the Detroit area where Chaldeans have settled in large numbers, the Chaldeans do maintain an identity different from that of Arabs. They claim to be descended from Iraq's original Babylonian/Sumerian people, while the Muslim Arabs are invaders who from the South. The local "Arab" organization is called the Arab Chaldean Council, not simply Arab council, because Chaldeans insist they are not Arabs (a point that offends some Arabs, who think the Chaldeans think they are better than Arabs and so want to emphasize their different identity).